Social Policy in Ontario

Monday September 6 is Labour Day in Canada. In recognition of this statutory holiday – the origins of which “can be traced back to April 14, 1872 when a parade was staged in support of the Toronto Typographical Union’s strike for a 58-hour work-week” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Day) – Canada Without Poverty and the CWP Advocacy Network are this year championing the call – led by Canadian labour and with the support of groups like the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, for significant pension and retirement security reform.

This call has three principal components:

1)      Increase Canada Pension Plan benefits;

2)      Increase the Guaranteed Income Supplement for seniors; and

3)      Introduce federal pension insurance to protect retirement savings.

The Canadian Labour Congress (“the umbrella organization for dozens of affiliated Canadian and international unions, as well as provincial federations of labour and regional labour councils”) has excellent, accessible information in support of labour’s Retirement Security for Everyone campaign.

• Click here for the CLC’s Labour Day 2010 message on this subject
• Click here for the CLC’s fact sheet series on pension and retirement security reform
• Click here for the CLC’s nifty calculator of how expanding the CPP can work for you:
• Click here for the CLC’s “Retirement Security for Everyone Campaign Toolbox”
• Click here for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ 2010 emergency resolution in support of pension and retirement security reform:

Canada Without Poverty and the CWP Advocacy Network shall work with Canadian labour (particularly within the context of Dignity for All: The Campaign for a Poverty-free Canada) to help advance public and political support for pension and retirement security reform.  Under international human rights law to which Canada is signatory, everyone has the right to “social security” and an “adequate standard of living.”  Government has a duty to ensure such economic and social rights are honoured and upheld.  Government must therefore work with business and civil society to construct a sustainable system of retirement security so that these rights – and the related right of “security of the person” (per international law and Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms) – are made real.